teachers. Of course! I have a new theory that 99.9% of teachers are unlikely to agree with. When a lesson goes horribly wrong, the first thing we do is blame the kids. Joey Bloggs did this that and the other. The lesson was disrupted. His fault - as usual. End of story. The sad fact (wavering fact that may change in a week!) is that when a lesson goes wrong, it is usually 99.9% something to do with the teacher. I think educators need to trace their steps more closely. Write honest incident reports, that really -and I mean really -track the incident to determine the trigger and the cause. Teacher - were you well prepared? Were you in a good mood? Were you enthusiastic and motivated about the knowledge you wanted to enthuse and motivate the pupils to learn about? Did you do something - however small -to make a pupil react unfavourably? Did you come across rude, controlling, angry? Did you focus on the good? Did you expect the best of them? Did you lay out ground rules (for behaviour) as well as learning objectives - at the start of the lesson? Are you emotionally stable? Easily provoked? Prejudiced? Unwilling to really help? Did you want to even be there?
All I know is - when I'm unprepared, in a foul mood, unenthusiastic, unmotivated, judgemental, rude, controlling, angry, suspicious, highly-strung, emotionally weak, easily provoked, prejudiced, bored, unhappy, effectively only standing there because of the monthly cheque.............my lessons don't go so well. That's what I know for sure, and that's when I put myself on the hook and let every single Joey Bloggs out there off it.
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